WHAT'S NEWS? • WEAPONRY • MILITARY OPERATION • ARVN

VIDEO CLIPS REGARDING VIETNAM WAR

ABOUT THE VIDEO CLIPS

INSIDE STORIES OF VIETNAM WAR (A special series of three parts, about 1 hour for each part) by National Geographic. Click on thumbnail pictures to view the video clips. Enjoy the documentary films when they are still available on Utube.

Vietnam Veteran Day Parade on the 25th anniversary of Vietnam War Memorial, Nov. 10, 2007 (with the participation of former ARVN soldiers). An estimated 4,000 motorcyclists swarmed the capital at the weekend for the 20th Rolling Thunder event. Many were veterans sporting leather vests advertising their platoon, their tour of duty, fallen comrades. Click on thumbnail picture to view the video clip

Video clips on the rallies for Democracy and protest against President Nguyen Minh Triet's visit (Communist Vietnam) in D.C. and California.

Click on the link below to view the documentary video clips on President Nguyen Van Thieu's, the ARVN's Parade (1973) & ceremony of the 1st VNAF F5 Fighting Squadron, and CO GAI VIET (This movie presentation has been made by 1975). After viewing, use your Browser's arrow to go back to Soldier's Stories page)

Click on the thumbnail pictures below to see the unique video clips of "Horror Highway" (1972), An Loc battle (1972), the defense of Newport Bridge (1975) and the ARVN retreat on highway 1 from Quang Tri (1972). You need to have Google Video Player to watch the last three items

For the video of "Horror Highway" & QuangTri (1972), you will see how the ARVN soldiers suffered, what sacrifices they and the refugees made on a long walk of retreat on Highway #1 (later dubbed as "Horror Highway") due to lack of transportation, fire supports, and incompetent, irresponsible leaders. A few months later, the ARVN pushed back, retook most of the territories of QuangTri province, marking it as one of the three major great victories of Summer of 1972.

AMERICA LOST

AMERICA LOST

By Steve McCann

In the 1970s, there was an evocative public service advertisement on television. It showed an old and grizzled Native American Chief with a tear rolling down his cheek as he surveyed the pollution scaring the landscape of the once-pristine land.

As the House of Representatives passed Health Care Reform, many of us who were blessed to immigrate to the United States in search of freedom and opportunity (and were welcomed with open arms) found ourselves looking across the panorama of our adopted land with a tear rolling down our cheek.

Many of us who came to the United States did so to escape the brutal hand of government or as survivors of the consequences of tyranny run amok.

It has become difficult to watch, as our adopted land appears to have chosen a path that will lead to a nation we dare not imagine: a nation beginning to resemble what we left behind.

We see in Washington, D.C. the spectacle of a Congress whose members are no longer responsive to the people or the Constitution, but instead are captive to their personal whims and greed, as well as their allegiance to a president, political party, and statist ideology.

We recognize that in the White House, in the office once occupied by some of the greatest men in history, the nation has as its president the person most hostile to the founding tenets of the United States since its inception. Mr. Obama appears more desirous of creating a "cult of personality" and a socialist utopia by any means necessary than in acting in the best interest of all the people.

We have witnessed, despite the overwhelming opposition of the people, the arrogance of power as the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress forced through a Health Care Reform bill -- a bill whose objective is not to improve the health care of the citizens, but to expand by geometric proportions the power of the state over the individual.

We know that this bill will be nearly impossible to fully repeal, but more importantly, it will pit the government against the individual, foment class warfare, create additional unemployment, shackle the economy, and exacerbate the national debt crisis, while ultimately rationing health care to the most vulnerable in society.

We notice that the (once-)mainstream media are no longer the watchdogs of the machinations of government, but rather the cheerleaders for the present administration. The current health care debate was viewed not as a vital national issue, but rather as a sporting event with the requisite reporting on which team would win.

We see an economy, the engine of wealth and security, hamstrung by regulations, taxes, government policies, lawsuits, and mandates no longer able to generate jobs and income for our citizens. American businesses can no longer compete in a new global economy and must therefore leave our shores, taking employment opportunities and wealth with them. Small businesses and entrepreneurs will no longer be able to generate jobs or even open their doors, as they too will be hobbled by this same myopic and rigid socialist ideology.

We realize, as do many of our fellow citizens, that the United States is on a collision course with national bankruptcy. Yet the present government appears determined, by their policies, to make certain that there is little or no economic growth so necessary to mitigate the future debt crises and make certain that the standard of living for all Americans continues to increase.

We fear that one day, the greatest nation in the history of mankind will be relegated to secondary status, easily intimidated by those who wish us harm, as the United States will no longer be able to finance the most dominant military in the world. Many of us have known first-hand the horrors of war, and we pray that that is something our fellow citizens never experience.

We watch as a nation blessed with abundant natural resources refuses to responsibly exploit them, but rather becomes dependent on the unreliable whims of foreign nations for energy while willingly enriching potential adversaries.

We know, based on our personal experience, that when a nation embarks on the road to massive government and control of the day-to-day lives of its citizens, the outcome is always detrimental to the individual. We know that liberty and freedom are the first casualties, and once fully lost, they can never be regained short of armed conflict.

We have been blessed to live among the most generous, outgoing, and patriotic people on the face of the earth. Some of us have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams, but all of us cherish the freedom to fail or succeed, to live in a land established on the premise that our rights come from God and not man, and to be part of man's most noble and crowning achievement: the founding and creation of the United States of America.

The founders of our country gave the people a road map, the Constitution, to maintain or regain the power of the people. Follow it. Unite, organize, use the legal process, peacefully march, and above all, vote and take back the country from those who are hell-bent on destroying it for personal vanity or adherence to a failed ideology.

This will be our last chance. On behalf of all of us over the past century who came across an ocean to seek freedom, please do not forsake your future and that of succeeding generations. There will be no beacon or haven for liberty-loving people throughout the world if the United States ceases to be that "shining city on a hill."

"THE AXIS OF IDIOTS"

"THE AXIS OF IDIOTS"

This Vietnam Vet's great writing piece shouts out loud and clear and makes good connection between Vietnam, Iraq, and the recent fiasco in "Washington Beltway." Please read, don't miss!

J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired

Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the U.S..S. Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq . You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam . You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did to the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam , is another war that you were for, before you were against it.

John Murtha- you said our military was broken! You said we can't win militarily in
Iraq . You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa . Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's butt. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.

Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot , who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now, you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.

Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Ghraib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqi's torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated another beheading for you. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You're a bloated, drunken fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levin, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq , you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.

American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda. I am happy that your company is sinking like a greased cinder block and will probably be bankrupt by the middle of 2009. I'm not surprised, as no one wants to read the trash you publish. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.

Yes, together you are America's AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your collective stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam . If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.

Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.

Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within.

Semper Fi,J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired

NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAS JUST BEGUN

The MSM (Mainstream Media) never tells you The Tea Party Revolution will take place on April 15, 2009 across America. To joint the Revolution, click on the icon picture below and check out for the "battle field" near you.

Have you heard of the grass roots movement "The 9-12 Project?" If not, click on the picture below for its website.

Obama Visits Marines... Met With Silence

Obama Visits Marines... Met With Silence

Let's face it.
The cut-&-runner is no George W. Bush.
No applause.
Barack Obama with US Marines in Kailua, Hawaii. Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, made a Christmas Day stop at a Marine Corps base in Hawaii, where he greeted troops and their family members during holiday dinner. (AFP/Tim Sloan)

"Just wanted to say hi, hey guys," Obama said as he walked into the Anderson dining hall which was decked out in Christmas decorations.

The diners represented seven military units -- Marine and Navy -- some of whom were joined by their families for Christmas dinner.

As Obama entered the room, it was absent of the regular fanfare of cheering and clapping. The diners were polite, staying seated at their respective tables and waited for the president-elect to come to them to stand up.
(Source: Gateway Pundit)

RESCUE DAWN

RESCUE DAWN

Based on the true story of an American pilot, Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is shot down during a top-secret mission to destroy Viet Cong strongholds in Laos at the beginning of the Vietnam War. Taken hostage, he endures unimaginable conditions at the hands of cruel captors in a makeshift POW camp.

Click the thumbnail on the left to watch the official website of the movie with lot of interesting video clips.

VIETNAM'S GREATEST SPIRIT OF LIBERTY

VIDEO CLIP

Click on the left thumbnail to view a video clip that shows Catholic Priest Nguyen Van Ly on trial for upholding Human Rights and Democracy in Vietnam. Father Nguyen Van Ly's protest has been gagged by a plain security and dragged out of the Court after he shouted "Down with Communism." Perhaps this is the greatest spirit of liberty for Vietnam after 32 years Saigon fell under communism. Please wait a moment for the video window loading.

A Billboard in California

A full page ad in an Australian newspaper

US SILENCE MUZZLES VIETNAM'S DISSIDENTS

US Silence Muzzles Vietnam's Dissidents

By Andrew Lam

A picture paints a thousand words, but an image taken from the state-controlled television in Vietnam and circulated widely on the Internet can convey the struggle of an entire people. Flanked by two angry-looking policemen, a man sits bleary-eyed, his mouth covered by the hand of an out-of-uniform policeman behind him.

Name: Father Ly Van Nguyen. Sentence: Eight years imprisonment. Crime: Carrying out propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

During the trial on March 30, Father Ly Nguyen's mouth was physically muzzled after he recited four lines of his own poetry.

"Communist trial of Vietnam
A lewd comedy for years
Jurors a bunch of baboons
Servants of dictators, who are you to judge?"

International human rights groups condemned the sentencing, which took only five minutes without a defense lawyer. "This sentence means Father Ly will be a prisoner of conscience for the fourth time in two decades," noted Amnesty International's Deputy Asia Pacific Director, Tim Parritt. "It is indicative of a broader crackdown on dissent by the Vietnamese authorities that has been intensifying since the country held the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting last November."

Vietnam intermittently plays a cat and mouse game with its political dissidents, arresting and releasing its most famous activists while those less visible are disappeared. Since March, however, Vietnam has launched one of the worst attacks on dissidents in 20 years. Among those arrested with Father Ly were Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan. All three were charged with carrying out propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, under article 88 of the Penal Code. If convicted, Le and Dai face sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

The arrest and subsequent disappearance of lawyers Le Quoc Quan and Tran Thuy Trang, however, are particularly alarming. Both are well known. After returning from a fellowship at the National Endowment for Democracy in the United States, Quan was arrested March 8, and charged with attempting to overthrow the Hanoi regime. The day before, Trang, another young lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City, was reportedly arrested by 60 security police. She has not been heard from since. According to Human Rights Watch, Trang's family was forced to sign documents promising not to discuss the arrest.

Speculations abound. Why now? Vietnam, after all, has been granted membership in the World Trade Organization and made its entrance to the world's economic stage last November when it hosted its first Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. Its Gross National Product has been growing at a steady and impressive seven percent for the last several years, and while political dissent is not allowed, its population is experiencing far more personal freedoms than during the cold war. Many are allowed to travel overseas. Private capitalism is all the rage. Movement within Vietnam is permitted freely. There's a middle class with disposable income and access to the Internet. Vietnamese media, too, while still controlled by the state, have proliferated and some have been pushing the envelope to cover stories of corruption and even official wrongdoings.

Perhaps that's precisely why, at least in the eye of the ruling communist elites, the crackdown seems to be needed: to maintain absolute political power. Political movements are brewing along with an increasingly wealthy and educated population, especially now that the population is growing more sophisticated and politically aware. Voices of dissent are heard daily, if not on the op-ed page, then at least on the streets.

Nguyen Van Dai, an outspoken dissident, is one of a handful of practicing human rights lawyers in Vietnam. He founded the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam in 2006 and was recently awarded the prestigious Hellman/Hammett prize for persecuted writers.

Father Ly is a co-founder of Bloc 8406 - a political movement that made its entrance to Vietnam's public stage on April 8 of 2006 when it published "Manifesto for Freedom and Democracy." Two days earlier, it had issued an "Appeal for Freedom of Political Association." These documents boldly challenged the Vietnamese government to uphold individuals' rights to free expression, association, and participation in political affairs.

Hanoi swiftly retaliated against both. "Several key organizers of Bloc 8406 and their families have been harassed and imprisoned, showing that the Vietnamese government is still trying to silence its critics," noted Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "Targeting the most vocal, visible activists sends a message to the others: don't speak out, or you'll suffer the same fate."

If Hanoi was hesitant to act before President Bush's visit during the APEC meeting last November, it was not afterwards. For a president who touted "freedom" and "democracy" in the Middle East, Bush came bearing an unexpected gift - a license, as it were - for the government to use against its dissidents. Though the U.S. president originally had hoped to give Vietnam normal trading status, that deal was delayed in Congress. Embarrassed by having no gift in hand, he dropped Vietnam from the list of nations that severely curtail religious freedom instead, even as these violations continued unabated.

The widely published photo of Bush smiling amicably under the bust of Ho Chi Minh augured terribly bad feng shui for Vietnamese human rights activists. It clashed with images of heavily guarded homes of political dissidents just a few kilometers from the APEC meeting in Hanoi. Freedom and democracy, apparently, were far from the U.S. President's mind in Vietnam. The United States once served as the bright and shiny model of democracy for many in Vietnam. But no longer.

Since Bush's visit, the list of those arrested has grown. Nguyen Tan Hoanh, Doan Van Dien, Doan Huy Chuong, Tran Thi Le Hong, Le Ba Triet, and Nguyen Tuan are among hundreds of political and religious prisoners in Vietnam, including cyber-dissident Nguyen Vu Binh, at least nine members of the Cao Dai religion, 10 Hoa Hao Buddhists, and more than 350 ethnic minority Christian "Montagnards" from the Central Highlands.

In Vietnam the word censorship is the colloquial phrase: bit mien - to cover the mouth. The picture of Father Ly's muzzling seems a literal enactment of an old cliche. But in the old days, his image wouldn't have gotten out of the country so quickly or circulated so widely, nor would his voice be heard at all. Back then, before the Cold War ended, he would have disappeared without a trace.

The wind of change seems to be on the dissidents' side. Thanks to high-tech communications such as the Internet, cell phones and satellite dishes, and increasing interactions with foreigners, Vietnam has a more informed, and therefore, increasingly restless, citizenry.

The Vietnamese word for leader - lanh dao - literally means "bearer of the truth (or the way)." Such leadership is non-existent among communist party leaders since Ho Chi Minh. These days, the carriers of the dao are identified with dissidents like Father Nguyen Van Ly and human rights lawyers like Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, prisoners of conscience with fearless spirit and indomitable strength.

And so, if one were to peel away the policeman's hand from Father Ly's mouth, the rest of his poem may go something like this.

"You can cover our mouths, blind our eyes
We will still speak, and see
Your rotten ideology is at an end
Your cruelty the sign of weakness
Change is coming! Change is coming!
And we, the people, will be free."

THE "ENEMY" WITHIN

THE "ENEMY" WITHIN

By Dick McDonald

The ongoing American tragedy is the ability of Democrat-controlled media to hide truth from the American people and blow insignificant and immaterial events into concerns so grave as to plummet the poll numbers of an exceptional presidency below 40%. This is a significant tragedy few in America are aware of. If the "truth will set you free", Democrats have incarcerated the American public in propaganda so devastating that rather than win a war, they are slowly becoming surrender advocates.

A famous and a recent Democrat candidate for the vice presidency of the United States, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, wrote an article essentially telling the American people that Democrats have been lying about the progress of the American troops in Iraq and imploring them not to believe the media's omissions of that progress and not to abandon the "27 million Iraqi for 10,000 terrorists". Other than the Wall Street Journal editorial, not one major media outlet, newspaper or TV, has reported this important news event; a criminal omission.

Today, the Weekly Standard reports that the entire Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson CIA leak case was orchestrated by Democrat CIA bureaucrats. A scandal so serious, it strikes at the very core of our democracy. The report states that many CIA leaks are designed specifically to undermine the confidence of the American people in the Bush Administration and because the CIA and most agencies in Washington are so overwhelmingly infested with Democrat Party partisans the public is deceived into believing the bureaucratic leaks, lies and propaganda disseminated by their Democrat-controlled media.

The right-wing blogs are the only resort America has for truth and an American perspective. Even Fox and their lead commentator, Bill O'Reilly, didn't comment or interview more than one Swift Boat Veteran and then dissed all 264 of them. He presently is pressing the Administration for withdrawal plans from Iraq when such disclosure would aid the enemy. The effectiveness of Sean Hannity is often blunted by the inane Democrat talking points of Alan Colmes. The direction of that company is being subverted by the majority of its staff which are Democrats.

So we continue to drive blind in America. The smokescreen is so thick and pervasive it boggles the mind. How can a country, so steeped in freedom, be captured by the lies, deceits and omissions of such a ruthless and criminal element? A party so corrupt they sacrifice truth in exchange for their return to power. A party who would leave Iraq prematurely and risk America's safety for political gain; a truly sad condition in which America finds itself today. And it doesn't matter what Joe Lieberman says, you won't hear about it. You will hear more trash from the CIA leaked to their allies in the media to fill the airwaves and columns with mindless and unimportant minutiae.

DEFENDING THE WALL

During the Vietnam war, the war protesters "controlled" the streets of most cities in USA. On March 17, 2007, the remnants of anti-Vietnam war movement and their "descendants" (anti-Iraq war elements) came together for a big show near Vietnam Monument, but this time they ran into a solid "entity": The "Eagles" and the "Rolling Thunder" of Vietnam war. If you haven't heard of this interesting confrontation (because main stream US media never mentioned it), see the video clip below then read the following report "Rolling Thunder In The House."

GATHERING OF EAGLES

Vietnam vets gathered at Vietnam war monument to protect the historic site and confronted the Iraq war protesters on March 17, 2007. As the reporter of hotair.com has mentioned in the video interview that she reports to counter the white-wash and virtually black-out of the major event by the US print and broadcast outlets. So it's worthwhile for you to follow the story.

Click the thumbnail on the left to watch the video.

ROLLING THUNDER IN THE HOUSE

Photo and Text by R J Del Vecchio.

Well, it's over now, the assembly areas for the Gathering of Eagles is an empty hillside of churned mud, the antiwar protest field is less muddy but just as empty. It was a long day, but a good one.

It started for me last night, when I went to visit one of the principal motels for the GOE movement, a Holiday Inn in Ballston, just outside DC. A friend and I walked in the door and were struck immediately with the sight of a couple dozen men in various kinds of clothing and insignia that marked them as Viet Nam veterans. I saw the name badge of one, a name given to me by a vet who runs a great blog, said hi, and was greeted warmly as a brother. The next few hours we spent meeting more vets, from Florida to California and every place in between, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, some older, some younger, some in good health, some in bad, but all rejoicing to be there, and determined to keep the memorials safe and show support for the troops. We were again, a band of brothers. That feeling alone was worth the trip.

The first major meeting was a discussion held by a vet who is also a retired cop, with crowd control experience, and who had been in liaison with the Park Police. He explained how carefully they were preparing to keep things safe, that they were our best friends, and that we needed to cooperate with them to the max. And that above all, we were not to let ourselves be goaded into any sort of violence, even if seriously provoked, since that was exactly what the radicals would like. People were to be designated as marshals, with special identifying shirts, and it would be their job to buffer the rest of us from attacks, and to demonstrate the discipline we have as lawful counter demonstrators. He reminded everyone that there would be both very sincere and nonviolent demonstrators whom we should not confront, and even regular tourists to whom we should be as courteous and helpful as possible.

The message came through loud and clear, and was accepted fairly well by everyone. (Even those angrier among us who would have welcomed a chance to let an abusive radical find out firsthand what the consequences can be of provoking those who have served the country they love.) It was said again and again by people that after all, we fought for their right to free speech and political expression, whether we like what they say or not. After all, it is who we are.

The next morning we got on the DC Metro at one of the outlying stations, on the first train of the day, and no sooner did we enter the car than we saw half the people on it were veterans. The sharing in conversation was great, and we were all building enthusiasm for the day to come.

When we got off the Metro, we were several blocks from the Memorial, and as we exited the station, there was another group of vets assembling on the corner. We started together down to the assembly point, and on the way, joined with three other groups of vets and supporters. This was before 8AM, and it was quite chilly, with a nice breeze to help suck the heat from your body.

At the assembly point they were already building a large garden of US flags, and hundreds of people were already there. I got registered with the coordinators to take photos, and was paired with a vet who was to use a video camera to record things while I took regular pictures.

By then the police presence was obvious, numerous officers standing around, motorcycles and police cars parked nearby, and booths had been set up at one end of The Wall for metal detectors, and one-way traffic past The Wall was required so everyone had to get checked before getting near it. There were also officers at a couple of places along the walk, and many vets making their way along as well, so I felt reassured that the chances of any vandalism had become vanishingly small.
My partner and I then made our first pass through moonbat territory, but hardly anyone was there. They were setting up enormous 12 foot speakers, and various displays of different protest groups, but clearly the main mass of their people had not begun to arrive. We did note large stockpiles of very nicely preprinted signs, condemning the war and call for impeachment of the President, ready to be handed out. Clearly these people are well funded and very well organized.

We roamed some more, to the Lincoln Monument, always impressive, and the sizeable group of vets there. Many wore the colors of various groups such as Rolling Thunder, US War Vets, Patriot Guard, Nam Knights, Legion Riders, and dozens of others. Others were, like myself and my partner, just wearing fairly normal clothing with just a badge or two identifying us in some way or another as Viet Vets, our brand of service or particular unit, and/or some motto relating to the war or our time there. There was also a smattering of Gulf War and Iraqi vets in the crowd. There were vets in good health, and others looking older, many with canes now, and some in wheelchairs. A lot of graying and grizzled men, clasping hands and sometimes embracing when they met others, often shivering in the crisp cold air, but shaking it off and smiling to see each other.

In the following hours the crowds grew, and eventually the main line between the protestors and the vets was drawn, right at a point on one side of the Lincoln Memorial, where a street divides the memorial area from the field where the antiwar people had set up the HQ (loudspeakers and all). Vets lined up on the memorial side, displaying many American flags, POW/MIA flags, and some banners as well. On the other side were many of the printed antiwar signs, but also a mixture of many others, some homemade, some also nicely printed, like the several I saw of Che Guevara, There was a PLO flag, a few "Truth for 9/11" signs (you know, the CIA/Mossad/Martians flew the planes into the towers), a poster calling for Christians to be Christian and renounce war, and some really nice vintage signs, like that oldie-but-goodie "Make Love, Not War".

The yelling across the street (police were on the median telling people to on their own sides, the vet side had marshals in orange shirts as well) got loud and nasty, and some of the protestors would come across the street to provoke the vets. I watched and photographed one guy deliberately carry his large homemade protest sign in a walk across the entire length of the vet side, inches away from them, taunting them, clearly looking to have someone throw a punch or grab his sign, but the marshals were telling everyone to stay cool, and the protestor finally reached the end of the line and had to cross back over to his side.

Several more protestors moved over towards the vet side, yelling and screaming, only a few vets moved into the street to yell back, and finally the police pushed the protestors back to their side and told them to stay there. I never saw any of the vets give any trouble at all to the police, and it became clear later that this was noticed.

Eventually the police called in reinforcements, eleven mounted officers formed a line at the end of the corridor between the two groups, and riot police put barriers all the way down the whole front of the antiwar side. But the barriers were shorter on the vet side, and every officer on the ground between the two curbs was facing the antiwar side, It was not hard to see who they thought were the real troublemakers.

The chants of USA-USA-USA at times could be heard from the vets, but much of the time the giant speakers on the other side drowned out everything. I was occasionally walking through that side (had a pullover windbreaker on over my jacket so they didn't see my VN ribbon or USMC emblem), and it actually hurt my ears to walk past those speakers. People wanted to give me the Socialist newspaper ($1 donation), and other antigovernment publications, but I stayed busy taking pictures of the life-size red doll of a devil with Bush's head on the shoulders, and the assorted radical cause banners displayed in several places. There were Quakers there, Moslem activists, old VVAW guys, a motley collection of people and causes only united by their being in opposition to our government. Some of them reasonably were sincere and courteous, but many were harshly aggressive.

Meanwhile, there was more sense of having gone through a time machine back to 1970, as the loudspeakers played the old songs, like "War- - What Is It Good For", and people actually had "Hell No, I Won't Go" buttons on. Original issue buttons, not reproductions, on people who must have dusted them off from their souvenir drawer to wear them again.

At one point a VVAW guy came up to me and wanted to talk, he recognized me as a vet and wanted to see where I was coming from. We had barely started to speak when a TV crew came over to drag him off for an interview. When he came back I asked him how they came to him rather than anyone else, and he mentioned they had interviewed him at other protests and knew him. He also said they were foreign press, so I asked from where. Germany.

Hmm, I decided to try something, so I ran after them found them and said to the lady interviewer "Sind Sie Deutsch?" She, surprised, said yes. So I said "Moechten Sie mit einander altem Soldat sprechen?" (Would you like to speak with another old soldier?) I figured, how could she say no, how often would she ever get a chance to interview an American vet who would speak German to her? They'd love that in Germany.

But she said that they'd just talked to one of us, and I said, yeah, but I am from a different point of view. She then quickly said "Oh, we have all the interviews we need, I must hurry now", and she turned and walked away fast.

I say again... what media bias? In my trips through protest areas, I saw at least 6-8 interviewers with TV cameras talking to people. I was told only two made it to the GOE area, Fox being one of them. Perhaps there's some meaning there.

The late morning went on, the crowds got thicker, the GOE hillside filled up and the many feet turned the soft ground into a monster mud pit in places. There were some good presentations, good music, and that feeling of unity and warmth that made up for the cold breeze. (Well, almost!) Guard groups of vets formed at the two entrances to the GOE site, and no one with an antiwar banner was allowed in. There were minor scuffles when some protest types tried to push in, usually their signs were trashed and they found themselves facing a solid wall of bodies that would not let them pass. And they went away, yelling nasty things. I saw one young woman slide past the first rank of guards, then start screaming at everyone, get barred from further travel inward by a line of men, and when she kept up her yelling, the police came in, she abused them, and wound up on the ground outside the gate. (A lot of smiling and chuckling at that point.) But no vet touched her.

When parade time approached, a procession of protestors came by the GOE area, between ranks of vets on either side, and it was again flashback time, Yes, I kid you not, they sang "Give Peace A Chance". A bunch of them were the Code Pink ladies, in seriously ridiculous pink outfits, and old enough that I realized they were probably singing that song because they'd sung it before, back about 1970 or so, and were reliving the glory days of the old protests.

In the end, their parade went off towards the Pentagon, and most vets relaxed and the day wore down, and by 2 PM people were heading for the Metro or their cars.

My best guess was that there were roughly equal numbers on both sides, maybe 4-5000 each. No one came near a monument with a spray can, no vet was ever rebuked by the police, and the antiwar people were clearly taken back to find themselves for once not in command of the situation, not able to dominate the whole event, and with a strong and unyielding presence of people who disagree with them while not trying to prevent them from exercising their rights. This was not a win for them, though they will certainly try to claim it as one.

This was a win for all of us who honor the Memorial, who don't' agree that antiwar extremism should prevail, who do believe in giving as much support as possible to our people in harm's way on our behalf. I am enormously grateful to all those who worked hard to set this up, and get it organized and coordinated. I am so damn happy and proud to have stood again in the ranks of those who love and defend this country that it's hard to express it properly. It was a great, great day.

To all those who participated in any way, I can only say I was honored to be there with you, thanks a thousand times, and Welcome Home, Brother...
Now and always.....

&bull. R J Del Vecchio

Mr. Del Vecchio is the Director of the Vietnam Healing Foundation, a charity in Raleigh that raises money for disabled Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) or South Vietnam Veterans still living in Viet Nam.

He has been back to Viet Nam twice on trips to support these forgotten and saddest war victims.

(Source:vietnamvote.net)

THE SELL-OUT OF ISRAEL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN

April 30, 1975, South Vietnam lost to Communism due to the "sell-out." Today you are going to witness a "Deja Vu," but this time the consequence would go beyond anything you could imagine. Israel won't just pack up and go to "concentration camp," she will take the "salesman" and the whole world to come along....! Read the latest, hot new below!

Baker wants Israel excluded from regional conference

The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a Middle East peace effort without Israel.

The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed Madrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria. Officials said Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference.

As Baker sees this, the conference would provide a unique opportunity for the United States to strike a deal without Jewish pressure, an official said. This has become the most hottest proposal examined by the foreign policy people over the last month.

Officials said Mr. Baker's proposal, reflected in the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, has been supported by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. The most controversial element in the proposal, they said, was Mr. Baker's recommendation for the United States to woo Iran and Syria.

Here is Syria, which is clearly putting pressure on the Lebanese democracy, is a supporter of terror, is both provisioning and supporting Hezbollah and facilitating Iran in its efforts to support Hezbollah, is supporting the activities of Hamas," National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told a briefing last week. "This is not a Syria that is on an agenda to bring peace and stability to the region."

Officials said the Baker proposal to exclude Israel from a Middle East peace conference garnered support in the wake of Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 25. They said Mr. Cheney spent most of his meetings listening to Saudi warnings that Israel, rather than Iran, is the leading cause of instability in the Middle East.

He [Cheney] didn't even get the opportunity to seriously discuss the purpose of his visit that the Saudis help the Iraqi government and persuade the Sunnis to stop their attacks, another official familiar with Mr. Cheney's visit said. Instead, the Saudis kept saying that they wanted a U.S. initiative to stop the Israelis' attack in Gaza and Cheney just agreed.

Under the Baker proposal, the Bush administration would arrange a Middle East conference that would discuss the future of Iraq and other Middle East issues. Officials said the conference would seek to win Arab support on Iraq in exchange for a U.S. pledge to renew efforts to press Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Golan Heights.

Baker sees his plan as containing something for everybody, except perhaps the Israelis, the official said. The Syrians would get back the Golan, the Iranians would get U.S. recognition and the Saudis would regain their influence, particularly with the Palestinians.

Officials said Mr. Baker's influence within the administration and the Republican Party's leadership stems from support by the president's father as well as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Throughout the current Bush administration, such senior officials as Mr. Hadley and Ms. Rice were said to have been consulting with Brent Scowcroft, the former president's national security advisor, regarded as close to Mr. Baker.

Everybody has fallen in line, the official said. Bush is not in the daily loop. He is shocked by the elections and he's hoping for a miracle on Iraq.

For his part, Mr. Bush has expressed unease in negotiating with Iran. At a Nov. 30 news conference in Amman, Jordan, the president cited Iran's interference in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.

We respect their heritage, we respect their history, we respect their traditions, Mr. Bush said. I just have a problem with a government that is isolating its people, denying its people benefits that could be had from engagement with the world.

Mr. Baker's recommendation to woo Iran and Syria has also received support from some in the conservative wing of the GOP. Over the last week, former and current Republican leaders in Congress convinced of the need for a U.S. withdrawal before the 2008 presidential elections have called for Iranian and Syrian participation in an effort to stabilize Iraq.

I would look at an entirely new strategy, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said. We have clearly failed in the last three years to achieve the kind of outcome we want.

In contrast, Defense Department officials have warned against granting a role to Iran and Syria at Israel's expense. They said such a strategy would also end up undermining Arab allies of the United States such as Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.

The regional strategy is a euphemism for throwing Free Iraq to the wolves in its neighborhood: Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, said the Center for Security Policy, regarded as being close to the Pentagon. If the Baker regional strategy is adopted, we will prove to all the world that it is better to be America's enemy than its friend. Jim Baker's hostility towards the Jews is a matter of record and has endeared him to Israel's foes in the region.

But Defense Secretary-designate Robert Gates, a former colleague of Mr. Baker on the Iraq Study Group, has expressed support for U.S. negotiations with Iran and Syria. In response to questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee, which begins confirmation hearings this week, Mr. Gates compared the two U.S. adversaries to the Soviet Union.

Even in the worst days of the Cold War, the U.S. maintained a dialogue with the Soviet Union and China, and I believe those channels of communication helped us manage many potentially difficult situations, Mr. Gates said. Our engagement with Syria need not be unilateral. It could, for instance, take the form of Syrian participation in a regional conference.

(Source: Insight)

VNAF U-6 BEAVER RESTORATION NEEDS INFORMATION

Hello guys,

Dave Younger (in Canada) is in the process of restoring a VNAF U-6 Beaver back to her original VNAF marking. He would like to have information or history of his recovered U-6. See his email and the photos posted below. It is a great help if you or your VNAF friends can provide such information, please contact him at his email: dyounger@shaw.ca

Don't let the Viet Cong's flag on the stabilizer vertical and their air force insignia on the fuselage bother you. She (the VNAF U-6) has been forced into "di khach" since the day we left her behind the enemy territory; once restored, she will magnificently fly again with VNAF marking in the freedom sky. This will be the first VNAF U-6 restored in the world I believe! I wonder VNAF U-6 bears the tail code like "U6 -138." Any feedback?

Thanks for your helps and pass this news around, hopefully someone with the right information will come forward.

PS: I got a second email from Dave and added it up. After reading the 2nd email I think only VNAF guys can really provide some good clues about his U-6. No way "guys" from "Vietnam" can provide any info of VNAF U-6's prior 1975, plus we all know well about their "nature" and how they "work" and "function." How about VNAF guys in Australia who recently wrote the VNAF History book (Quan Su Khong Quan)? They would know what Division and Squadron that used U-6 Beavers, from that point things could be tracked down further more!

It is very interesting to discover that VC has used VNAF U-6's for...Vietnam Airline transportation (Hang Khong Viet Nam). I wonder whether passengers have to...squat like sardines inside the closed U-6 fuselage! :0))))))

DAVE'S EMAIL

Photo's of my aircraft now,old paint but it will look good after restoration.It got a lot of history if only it could talk. Under this paint job you can still see the South Vietnam flag and call # on the tail ( U6-138 ) and also some of the paint from the French paint job.( F-OAKK ).

I'm calling to see if you can help me with finding out any history or info about my Viet Nam aircraft. This aircraft was sent to Viet Nam new in 1951 and was used by the French (F-OAKK),untill thay left it behind. You can still see the old paint under this newer paint job. Next it was painted with South Viet Nam's Flag down each side and has (U6-138) on the tail. This can also be seen under the paint as it was just brushed over. Next the paint was retouched up by North Viet Nam, as you can see in the photo's above it is now HANG KHONG VIET NAM ,with the North Viet Nam flag on the tail.

This aircraft was shipped back to Canada in the 1990's with no log books or paper on it's history. I'm going to restore it, but I need to find any history from Viet Nam. I know lots of aircraft were worked on,repaired or maintained at Udorn and continental air services. I don't know which group did the South Viet Nam Beaver's work, but I was hoping you would know some one I could get in contact with or could contact me. I would be interested in any kind of history/info/photo's on mine or any other Beaver aircraft,Things like which group worked on them(Air America)(Viet Nam)(continental)(Other)? which group was flying them ?Is there a place with old paper work from work done on itin the 50's 60's 70's? any info at all.

Thank You for your help,
Dave Younger

Hi again

Thank you for your time, It would be very good If you could post me on your web page. Any info/history your friends may have would be a help. I have tried to get info from Vietnam but have never received any thing back. I guess I will have to go there,but I don't have any contacts or places to start. Even if I just find out about how it was used it would be good history. In the end I'm hopping to find something with any kind of a airframe time so I can recreate a logbook.

I just received the info below and I'm sending it along.I don't think the S/N he has are right for the other two?

3 Vietnam beaver's came to Vancouver at the same time, all part of the same deal the other two were cut up and used for parts,the story as I have been told is all 3 had been sitting around for years, the other 2 at a airport and mine was sitting in a park sort of as a display all 3 came to Vancouver with a bunch of parts in about late 1990.

VNAF U-6 MAGNIFICENTLY FLEW IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS

"IMPRESSION OF MY FATHER"

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

"Impressions of My Father" with Quyen Truong, a Brown senior art concentrator, who was born in Saigon, and moved with her family to Hartford, Connecticut, when she was seven. Her father, an ARVN (South Vietnamese) soldier, was imprisoned in a re-education camp north of the 17th parallel for seven years and barely survived the experience. She has taped and transcribed interviews with her father, and has transformed her impressions into large, black and white drawings (5 of them, roughly 8 feet by 4 feet each). Her paintings are overwhelming in their power to move the viewer. Truong will describe the process by which she "interviewed" her father, what motivated her to do so, her father's response to seeing her paintings, and some reflections on her trip during the summer of 2004 back to Vietnam with her father (their first since immigrating to the U.S.).

"Impressions of My Father" was part of an Exhibition Commemorates "Three Milestones in War with Vietnam" at The Watson Institute For International Studies in April, 2005.

Photo: "Nightmares," by Quyen Truong '05. Oil, permanent marker, black ink, and charcoal on muslin. From the Exhibition Guide: "Aside from human-inflicted punishment, re-education camp prisoners faced malnourishment, heat-stroke, infectious diseases, malaria, and dysentery, among other traumas. Although the population of these labor-intensive camps was diverse—everyone from South Vietnamese doctors to soldiers were forced to endure re-education—the men found community in each other. My father recounted many tales of how he survived because another prisoner looked after him, or found him when he was injured and sick in the jungle. Throughout the gloom of sickness and feverish nightmares, these men tried their best to ensure each other's survival. Images of ghostly spirits and watchful eyes are integrated into the painting to emphasize the conflicting senses and the fevered thoughts of the sick man portrayed."
(Source: Brown University)

HAWKER 800XP VS GLIDER AT FL160

Sent in by Peter Nguyen

The mood couldn't have been more relaxed aboard an executive jet carrying three Incline residents as it began its descent towards Reno-Tahoe International Airport Monday afternoon.

Mike Chipman was dozing while his wife, Evy, read a book. Steve DiZio was also reading and occasionally looked-up to check the flight's progress on a GPS read-out.

Then, they heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the cockpit. The cabin depressurized and the plane veered to the right before going into a steep dive.

"The pilot had just put on the seat belt sign, and a few minutes afterwards there was this explosion ...a really loud bang or crash from the cockpit," recalled DiZio, a retired high-tech start-up manager.

Traveling from the Carlsbad Airport in San Diego, the Hawker 800XP jet struck a glider in a mid-air collision at 16,000 feet over the Pine Nut Mountains southeast of Carson City.

The accident, which took place at about 3:10 p.m., destroyed the jet's nose cone and the glider whose pilot, Japanese citizen and 30-year glider veteran, Akihiro Hirao, parachuted safely back to earth.

The pilot quickly brought the jet back under control as the three startled passengers secured their oxygen masks.

After deducing that the damage to the starboard wing, part of which had caved-in and was leaking fuel vapor, was too extensive to have been caused by a bird, and that they would all be dead if they had struck another conventional airplane, passenger Mike Chipman, a part owner of the Arizona Diamond Backs, surmised the truth.

"I knew there were gliders all over the place ... the only thing I could figure when we realized it wasn't a bird was that it was a glider," he said.

DiZio and the Chipmans said they did not panic after the crash.

"Things go through your mind, but it was sort of like a dream," DiZio said. "There was nothing we could do. We just sort of went calm."

"I did some deep breathing and said a few prayers," Evy Chipman said.

"Though I was aware of the damage to the wing, there wasn't much I could do," said Mike Chipman. "The pilots clearly had it under control, but it certainly had my attention."

Though the passengers didn't know it at the time, the starboard engine had failed. Moreover, part of the glider had ripped its way through the plane's nose and into the instrument panel, causing it to burst into the pilot's face and lap.

Despite a gash to her chin, pilot Annette Saunders remained in control throughout the remainder of the flight, even after a two-foot piece of the nose structure had bent its way in front of the cockpit window.

After passing the Carson City Airport, the pilot swung the plane around to bring it in for an emergency landing. As they leveled-out, the co-pilot turned and yelled over the noise that they had lost control of their landing gear and would skid to a halt on the aircraft's belly.

Though passengers assumed the emergency position, they said the landing could not possibly have been better.

"The landing was as smooth as you could imagine, not even a bump," DiZio said. "We stayed on the runway right up to the end, so she (the pilot) must have had that just perfectly lined-up even with the crosswinds."

Upon landing, pilot Saunders was taken to the Washoe Medical Center with minor injuries.

Glider pilot Hirao was found unharmed by Washoe Tribal Police later that evening.

According to Lyons County Sheriff's Department Captain Jeff Page, the tribal police spotted a Japanese man, asked him if he was a glider pilot, and told him that a lot of friends were looking for him. They drove him back to the Minden-Tahoe Airport, where he had taken off earlier that afternoon, where he was greeted by friends, examined and quickly released with only scrapes and bruises.

"To be quite honest, I don't think anybody was expecting the outcome that we had," Page said. "In my 20 years in law enforcement, I've never seen a mid-collision where anybody survived. Here, everyone made it.

FAUX-TOGRAPHY

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE LARGER IMAGE

THE "INNOCUOUS PHOTO"

VOILA: THE TRUE COLOR

A PICTURE DOESN'T TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH

I found this to be most interesting and certainly thought provoking. I guess the only way to combat "false" images is to listen and read all sorts of news sources, and then doubt the validity of most!! Frustrating in the supposed age of information.

An analysis of a single seemingly innocuous photograph, and the pervasive media bias it reveals.

This photo essay of the anti-war protest in San F rancisco on September 24, 2005 was not the only report done about the event. A few other outlets ran their own coverage. But the one photo from the rally that was seen by the most people was this: (See photo on the left column).

Why? Because the San Francisco Chronicle, which had the only mainstream media coverage of the rally, published this photograph on the front page of its Web site as a teaser for their article about the event.

Now, let's take a closer look at this image (See photo on the left column).

By chance, I took a photo of the same girl just a few moments later. Looks practically identical, doesn't it?

But you might notice that my picture is lower resolution. That's because it's a zoomed-in portion of a much larger photograph. I cropped off the other parts of the picture to get a close-up of the girl.

But what would happen if I hadn't cropped off so much? Let's take a step backward and reveal what the San Francisco Chronicle didn't want you to see (See photo on the left column).

Here's the same photo without as much cropping, revealing more of the context. You can see that the girl's protest contingent also sported Palestinian flags and obscene placards.
Now let's take another step back (See photo on the left column).

Here's my full original photo, uncropped. Now we can see that the girl is just one of several teenagers, all wearing terrorist-style bandannas covering their faces.

But, as you'll notice, the bandannas are all printed with the same design. Was this a grassroots protest statement the teenagers had come up with all by themselves?

To find out, let's take a look at another photo in the series, taken at the same time: (See photo on the left column)

Oo ps -- it looks like they're actually being stage-managed by an adult, who is giving them directions and guiding them toward the front of the march. But who is she?

The last picture in the series reveals all (See photo on the left column).

It turns out that the woman giving directions belongs to one of the Communist groups organizing the rally - if her t-shirt is to be believed, since it depicts the flag of Communist Vietnam, which has been frequently displayed by such groups at protest rallies in the U.S. for decades.

The San Francisco Chronicle featured the original photograph on its front page in order to convey a positive message about the rally - perhaps that even politically aware teenagers were inspired to show up and rally for peace, sporting the message, "People of Color say 'No to War!'" And that served the Chronicle's agenda.

But this simple analysis reveals the very subtle but insidious type of bias that occurs in the media all the time. The Chronicle did not print an inacc uracy, nor did it doctor a photograph to misrepresent the facts. Instead, the Chronicle committed the sin of omission: it told you the truth, but it didn't tell you the whole truth.

Because the whole truth - that the girl was part of a group of naive teenagers recruited by Communist activists to wear terrorist-style bandannas and carry Palestinian flags and obscene placards - is disturbing, and doesn't conform to the narrative that the Chronicle is trying to promote. By presenting the photo out of context, and only showing the one image that suits its purpose, the Chronicle is intentionally manipulating the reader's impression of the rally, and the rally's intent.

Such tactics - in the no-man's-land between ethical and unethical - are commonplace in the media, and have been for decades. It is only now, with the advent of citizen journalism, that we can at last begin to see the whole story and realize that the public has been manipulated like this all along.

SEND THIS TO THOSE WHO WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE WHOLE STORY; OUR MEDIA IS AS MUCH AN ENEMY AS THE TERRORISTS!!!!!!!!!!

Sent by Vo.T.Van – (Author Of This Article: Unknown)

"THIS WAR IS FOR REAL"

THIS WAR IS FOR REAL

This is written by Major General Vernon Chong, MD, USAF Retired. He's a highly decorated Air Force Pilot, Flight Surgeon, past Commander of Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio and Command Surgeon at the Headquarters of the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. So he is real, is well connected to Veterans' affairs, and these are his thoughts. They are worth reading and thinking about! Do a Google search on him and you'll see some of his other though-provoking writings.

By MG Vernon Chong, USAFR

To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII).

The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.

First, let's examine a few basics:

1. When did the threat to us start?
Many will say September 11, 2001. The answer as far as the United States is concerned is 1979, 22 years prior to September 2001, with the following attacks on us:

2. Why were we attacked?
Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms The attacks happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2. We cannot fault either the Republicans or Democrats, as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or their immediate predecessors, Presidents Ford or Carter.

3. Who were the attackers?
In each case, Muslims carried out the attacks on the US.
4 What is the Muslim population of the World? 25%.

5. Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful?
Hopefully, but that is really not material. There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also Christian), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you were eliminated. There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons (including 7,000 Polish priests). Thus, the Nazis, killed almost the same numbers of Christians as the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other than the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy about killing anyone who got in his way of exterminating the Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian or any others.

Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US, but kill all in the way -- their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone else. The point here is that just like the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing -- by their own pronouncements -- killing all of us "infidels." I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was shut up or die?

6. So who are we at war with?
There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal. There is no way to win if you don't clearly recognize and articulate whom you are fighting.

THE SHOCKING PHOTOS OF TERROR ATTACKS

So with that background, now to the two major questions:

1. Can we lose this war?
2. What does losing really mean?
If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions.

We can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the second question - What does losing mean?

It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home and going on about our business, like post Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one can get. What losing really means is:

We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but rather will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us, over the past 18 years. The plan was clearly, for terrorists to attack us until we were neutered and submissive to them. We would, of course, have no future support from other nations; for fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see we are impotent and cannot help them.

They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage. It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do will be done. Spain is finished.

The next will probably be France. Our one hope on France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished; too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us. However, it may already be too late for France. France is already 20% Muslim and fading fast!

If we lose the war, our production, income, exports and way of life will all vanish, as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us, if they were threatened by the Muslims?

If we can't stop the Muslims, how could anyone else?

The Muslims fully know what is riding on this war, and therefore are completely committed to winning, at any cost. We better know it too and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.

Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple. Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our thoughts and efforts into winning. And it is going to take that 100% effort to win.

So, how can we lose the war?

Again, the answer is simple. We can lose the war by "imploding." That is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their purpose, and really digging in and lending full support to the war effort. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win!

Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the life and death seriousness of this situation.

President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation. Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow profiling. Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously? This is war! For the duration, we are going to have to give up some of the civil rights we have become accustomed to. We had better be prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most certainly lose all of them permanently.

And don't worry that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty of civil rights during WWII, and immediately restored them after the victory and in fact added many more since then.

Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him?

No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our Political Correctness, and all of our civil rights during this conflict and have a clean, lawful, honorable war. None of those words apply to war. Get them out of your head.

Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the Administration that it almost seems they would literally like to see us lose. I hasten to add that this isn't because they are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing means. Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weakening. It concerns our friends, and it does great damage to our cause.

Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war, perhaps exemplifies best what I am saying. We have recently had an issue, involving the treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war, by a small group of our military police. These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise murdering their own people just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein.

And just a few years ago these same type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own people for the same reason. They are also the same type enemy fighters, who recently were burning Americans, and dragging their charred corpses through the streets of Iraq. And still more recently, the same type enemy that was and is providing videos to all news sources internationally, of the beheading of American prisoners they held.

Compare this with some of our press and politicians, who for several days have thought and talked about nothing else but the "humiliating" of some Muslim prisoners -- not burning them, not dragging their charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but "humiliating" them.

Can this be for real?

The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the Secretary of Defense. If this doesn't show the complete lack of comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are fighting, the life and death struggle we are in and the disastrous results of losing this war, nothing can.

To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this prisoner is

sue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned -- totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world. Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife. Again I say, this does not mean that some of our politicians or media people are disloyal. It simply means that they are absolutely oblivious to the magnitude, of the situation we are in and into which the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us, for many years.

Remember, the Muslim terrorists' stated goal is to kill all infidels! That translates into ALL non-Muslims -- not just in the United States, but through out the world.

We are the last bastions of defense.

We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant.' That charge is valid in at least one respect; we are arrogant in that we believe that we are so good, powerful and smart, that we can win the hearts and minds of all those who attack us, and that with both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat anything bad in the world!

We can't!

If we don't recognize this, our nation, as we know it will not survive, and no other free country in the world will survive if we are defeated.

And finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the world that allow freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal rights for anyone -- let alone everyone, equal status or any status for women, or that have been productive in one single way that contributes to the good of the world.

This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war or we will be equated in the history books to the self-inflicted fall of the Roman Empire. If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow history books to be written or read.

If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less. They will continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to encroach little by little, on the established French traditions. The French will be fighting among themselves, over what should or should not be done, which will continue to weaken them and keep them from any united resolve. Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?

Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece. And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide, that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power. They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses. Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct, about the "peaceful Muslims"?

I close on a hopeful note, by repeating what I said above. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. I hope now after the election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the critical situation we are in, and will unite to save our country. It is your future we are talking about! Do whatever you can to preserve it.

After reading the above, we all must do this not only for our children, but our grandchildren, our country, the world and ourselves. Whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal and that includes the Politicians and media of our country and the free world!

Please forward this to any you feel may want, or NEED to read it. Our "leaders" in Congress ought to read it, too.

There are those that find fault with our country, but it is obvious to anyone who truly thinks through this, that we must UNITE!

VIETNAM DOGHANDLER

The Photos and texts below are sent by Jim Stewart, author of the book "The Ghost Of Vietnam" and also a Vietnam Vet. Jim recently attended a Vietnam Doghandler Ceremony at the Museum of March Air Force Base (Moreno City, Southern California). I am posting the photos here to share with every one some rare pictures that you can see the Vietnam Vets in full combat gears at the reunion (but this is a common image at the many former ARVN soldiers' reunions).

If you have any inquiries about the book "The Ghost Of Vietnam," you can check at Jim's website link at the left corner of this vnafmamn home page, or see "Book Mark page" at "Fighting The Lost War" section. Enjoy the photos and thank you, Jim for sending in the meaningful pictures.

VIETNAM DOGHANDLER (QUAN KHUYEN) CEREMONY

Well, went to the Vietnam Dog Handlers ceremony yesterday at March Air Force Base, located at the Museum. First of all, if you haven't been to the museum it is really a neat place to visit, has lot's of vintage aircrafts and choppers, bombers, etc. A nice gift shop and indoor section with lots of photos, uniforms, all that.

The ceremony was solemn and had guest speakers, the Chief of Police of Los Angeles, who himself was a dog handler with the 212th MP Company in Nam. Also a retired General, Lt. Colonel and an officer from the Long Beach PD whose dog was recently shot and killed in the line of duty by one of the many dirt bags that are out there enjoying the freedom to be dirt bags that our military has given him/her.

The officer didn't get two words out before he choked up. All the VN guys stood up after a dedication and said their dogs name, plus their military serial number (of the dog). There was then a demonstration put on by a fine group of young Marines and their dogs.

It was really a great day. I was invited up by Ernie Ayala who served with the 212th and my wife and I later ate with he and his wife in a local restaurant.

If I'm not mistaken it was said that 4,000 dogs served and 500 were killed in action. Only 38 dogs were brought home after the war. This is the sad part. Because the government was concerned about diseases and stuff the dogs might carry they were left behind, to their fate, or put to sleep. A bunch of crap if you ask me. What a dishonorable thing we did to those soldiers. They carry that with them today. Thinks of training with your dog, the doing a tour of duty, then you leave and they stay. Pretty sad.